Chapter 50: Boiling Medicine

Xia Zhizhi covered her chest and explained softly, "Auntie Cui, I have been in poor health since I was young and cannot be frightened. I was just startled by the two little comrades, Da Lai and Sigaba, throwing locusts at me. I felt my heart pounding."

"Those two naughty kids, I'll go talk to their old lady later and ask her to teach them a lesson!" Aunt Cui felt sorry for her when she saw her little face turned pale with fright.

"No, no, children are always naughty." Xia Zhizhi said hurriedly, "I didn't do anything serious. I just passed by and saw my sister-in-law at home. I wanted to ask her if she had a clay pot or a jar to change it for me. My heart is pounding. I brought some herbs with me and I'll go back to boil a pot to drink."

Aunt Cui thought for a moment and said, "I remember there seems to be one at home. Wait a minute, I'll go find it for you."

Aunt Cui rummaged under the cupboard for a while, found a small clay pot, blew off the ashes on it, and handed it to her.

"How much is it, ma'am?" she asked.

Aunt Cui saw that she was thin and weak, with a pale face, and felt sorry for her. Such a jar was too big to store oil or salt, but too small to boil water. It was useless to keep it at home. If anyone needed it, they could use it. She waved her hands and said, "How much can a broken jar be worth? Just use it."

"How can I do that?" She glanced around the yard and saw three hens pecking at the vegetables in the vegetable garden next to her. "Auntie, I want to trade some eggs with you."

Aunt Cui's family had four strong laborers who earned full work points. Occasionally, the family would get some wheat straw, reeds and willow branches to braid hats, baskets and braids to exchange for some money. The whole family was hardworking.

But there were many children in the family, and sending those of appropriate age to school was an expense, so the family could only barely feed themselves to the full.

I usually don’t eat the eggs laid by the three old hens at home. I have to collect them and exchange them for some living expenses.

It's going to be sold anyway, so it doesn't matter who you sell it to.

Aunt Cui went upstairs and brought in a basket. She lifted the floral cloth and found 19 eggs inside.

He asked, "Xia Zhiqing, how much do you want? We usually take it to the food station to exchange it, one for nine cents."

This is also the price they sold it at. If you want to buy it back, you have to pay 1.1 cents, and you need a receipt.

It's cold here in the Northeast, and chickens don't lay eggs for several months, so it's normal that the price is a bit higher than in the South.

Xia Zhizhi naturally took both.

She took out two yuan and handed it to Aunt Cui. Aunt Cui calculated for a long time but couldn't figure it out. She said, "The prices are about the same. The rest is the money for Aunt Cui's jar."

"No way! I won't take advantage of you, a little girl!" The last time she went to the shopping mall, she exchanged 23 eggs for 2 yuan and 7 cents.

Aunt Cui held her back and started picking the eggs. One was 9 points, two were 9 points, three were 9 points...

Xia Zhizhi thought she was quite cute.

"It just so happens that I was still in need of a straw hat and a basket, and my sister-in-law also replaced them for me. I got the upper hand."

“Sure!” Aunt Cui would definitely be happy to be able to exchange more things, and she happily went to get her a shoulder basket and a straw hat.

She chatted with Aunt Cui for a while and asked about the situation in the village.

Then he carried the basket filled with cans and eggs, put on a straw hat, and returned to the educated youth point.

Aunt Cui waved to her from behind: "Come over when you have time!"

Aunt Cui doesn't work. She takes care of her two grandchildren at home, cooks for the family, does the laundry, and is basically always at home.

Xia Zhizhi returned to the educated youth site, but the new educated youth had not returned yet.

She washed the jars. Since there was no suitable stove, she built a simple stove with stones in the yard. She took out a pack of Eight Treasures Soup from the empty space, washed it, threw it into the jars, added water and started to boil.

When the old educated youth came back from work, the yard was filled with the smell of Chinese medicine.

On the way back, Zhao Jinhua and her friends told Li Mao about her sleepwalking the night before, exaggerating the incident.

Li Mao was a little bit unconvinced. After all, she looked so frail and it was impossible to imagine her chasing everyone with a knife.

But when I saw Zhao Jinhua change her hairstyle from a long braid to a student hairstyle, I felt a little uncertain.

Li Mao saw her boiling the medicine and asked, "What happened to Xia Zhiqing?"

"I have had poor health since I was young. I'm a little tired after sitting on the train for several days in a row. I didn't get enough rest at night. I was afraid that I would get sick, so I made a prescription for prevention. Is it because the smell is too bad and affects everyone?" Xia Zhizhi looked apologetic.

"Otherwise, should I take it outside to boil it?"

Li Mao said hurriedly: "It's okay, it's okay, just do it here."

If the villagers saw the newly arrived educated youth being sent out to boil medicine, they wouldn't know what they would say about him.

Besides, if you boil the medicine outside, the smell will still float in.

Li Mao looked at her bewildered look and paused: "Xia Zhiqing."

"Hmm?" Xia Zhizhi looked up at him with her big innocent eyes blinking.

Li Mao asked hesitantly, "I heard from the educated youth Zhao and others that you were sleepwalking last night, chasing them with a knife and hacking at them, and you chopped off all of Comrade Zhao's hair..."

She was surprised: "Really? I, I didn't know. No one told me that I sleepwalked... What should I do?"

This was the first time that Li Mao encountered this kind of thing and he also didn't know what to do.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Maybe it's just an occasional thing. I'll lock the kitchen at night, so it won't be a big deal even if he sleepwalks again. It's just that Comrade Zhao's hair was chopped off by you yesterday... How about you discuss it?"

It's up to you to cut your hair, but it's hard to say if someone else cuts it.

Xia Zhizhi said pitifully: "Comrade Zhao, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Your hair..."

She thought for a moment, went back to her room, took out two eggs, and handed them to Zhao Jinhua: "This is for you to replenish. I hope your hair will grow longer soon. Please forgive me."

Nowadays, if children get into a fight and bleed a little, as long as the consequences are not serious, going to the owner's house and getting them to boil an egg as a compensation is considered a good compensation.

"Okay then." Zhao Jinhua put the two eggs in her pocket. Actually, it didn't matter if she didn't pay, after all, no one was hurt.

Several people looked at each other and thought that they had been wrong last night. As long as Xia Zhizhi didn't take the knife, if she dared to act like a demon again, wouldn't it be easy for them to deal with her?

The four old educated youth went to cook, but because the new educated youth had all gone out, they didn't cook for them. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but they didn't cook for Xia Zhizhi either.

Xia Zhizhi didn't care. Not only Wang Lizhen couldn't swallow that piece of coarse grain, she couldn't swallow it either.

After the old educated youth finished their meal and went to work, she was still boiling the medicine, and continued to do so until the new educated youth came back.

Han Youran, Jiang Xiurong and Wang Lizhen, three female comrades, bought too many things to carry, so they spent 20 cents and asked the master who drove a ox cart to bring them back.

The grandfather parked the car in an open space in front of the Youth League Home.